The trick, I've found, in pleasing a new vegetarian is form. The successful meals I've come up with in the past couple of months look like fun. They have the same ingredients as my cheap stews. They take a bit more work, they're not huge batches where I can stack up ten plastic containers in the freezer. But they look like 'normal' food and they taste great.

Veggie Burgers

Recipe

California rolls

I broke my rule about fake meat and used two Yves brand veggie sausages to make these. My first try and I just happened to have a bamboo mat and baggies big enough to hold it.The soup is boiled kale (frozen, from our garden) with miso paste added after it's off the burner.
There's a video on how to form the rolls here.

Tofu and bottled sauce

This occurred to me after strict vegetarian friends attended a dinner concert with a smorgasbord that was mostly meat. The hosts made them something with tofu and a mango sauce that they were quite satisfied with. I was browsing the jars of President's Choice fancy sauces, gloating that I never wasted money on anything so ready-made and frivolous, when I remembered that tofu dish and wondered if the restaurant didn't keep a few jars of this on hand. The ingredients weren't too sketchy, so I bought a jar and a packet of extra firm tofu. I breaded the slices the same as my mother does fish: dredge them in flour (I used kamut); dip them in slightly diluted egg; dip them in bread crumbs (which I save when I slice up a batch of cooled bread); and brown them in olive oil with a bit of sesame oil. The sauce was very intense, so I made up a two-cup batch of veggie bouillon gravy and added the jar of sauce. This was enough for four servings, as was the tofu. Served as pictured over buckwheat noodles (soba) with steamed broccoli florets. I'll try some different sauces, but I'll always cut them with veggie gravy.

 

Chinese Onion Pancakes, plus...

This is based on Chinese scallion pancakes, a street food. It's made with white flour and it's pan-fried, but they're so crispy-chewy and delicious you can get quite a lot of vegetable matter into one diner in a cup of flour without deep-frying. For my first try I made four pancakes, all different, for two of us. I grated half an onion, a small zucchini, a beet, a carrot and half a green tomato. I concluded that the beet pancake was the tastiest. It also happens to be the vegetable that's (a) available all winter without importing, and (b) is jam-packed with veggie nutrients.

I put finely sliced onions in all four. Flouring the board will help, but cramming this quantity of vegetables into Chinese hot water dough is messy, any way you cut it. You can brush oil onto the pancake before you flip it. They need to be flipped back & forth a few times, so they don't burn.

Here are some pictures to inspire you. If you want to try it, I'd suggest looking at the site where I found the instructions.
Stack O' Burritos

Instead of fussing with self-serving my small, delicate homemade tortillas I make a stack with refried beans between them. Served with salsa and a bowl of squash soup, it has eye appeal, it eats like comfort food, and it has all the ingredients I want to be eating.

Black bean soup and fried polenta

The crispiness of frying cold corn porridge is the key to the acceptance of this meal.  Boiled vegetables (on his most-hated list) are hidden in the pureeing of the soup. Recipe

 Stuffing-like Casserole

This is based on one of those recipes that non-vegetarians make when they invite a vegetarian over for dinner. I can pack it with good foods that then all taste like the best poultry stuffing –  because I use the fresh (or frozen) sage and thyme from our garden.

1 cup bread crumbs (from dried crusts of good bread)
1 cup grated old cheddar
1 cup finely minced onions
1 cup grated zucchini or other vegetable
10 fresh sage leaves, snipped
3 twigs fresh thyme, not the woody parts
2 eggs
1/2 a sweet pepper diced, or a grated carrot
salt, pepper (lots)

Stir well with a kitchen knife, then add:
2 cups cooked black beans (Soak overnight in slow cooker and cook till tender on high, then rinse, drain and freeze in 1 cup snack bags)

Bake in a greased casserole 35 minutes at 350F (Don't overcook it, or it will dry out)


Non-Indian Puri
Mmmmm, easy and yummy, hold-it-in-two-hands-and-chomp vegetarian comfort food. I made puri with chapatti flour (just the recipe on the Golden Temple flour bag).

Chapatti dough ( one cup of flour) rolled into eight 3 1/2" rounds, fried four at a time. Slit open like pitas, then stuffed with:
1 small sweet potato, boiled
1 minced onion
1 cup cooked, drained black beans
sliced green olives
... salt & pepper.

Mix a little mayo and relish for dipping. Hard not to gobble.

 

This is my second recipe using Yves brand soy-based fake meat. I rail about being a 'bad vegetarian' by simply replacing meat with fake meat. However, a touch of nicely flavored sausage (in the California Rolls on this page) or a few small veggie dogs in a large batch of cabbage rolls doesn't constitute 'relying'' – it's like when you use a little cheese, more as a condiment than as a major source of protein.

Cabbage Rolls

Cook
1 1/2 cups brown rice
in
2 cups boiling water till water is absorbed

Cook
1 cup rinsed brown lentils
in
2 1/2 cups vegetable bouillon
until tender

Into soaked rice, mix:
2 beaten eggs
2 minced onions
1 chopped green pepper
3 veggie hot dogs, diced
1 Tbsp of dried savory

Cut the core out of the cabbage and put it into a large pot half full of boiling water. Remove leaves by the bottom of the spines as they loosen.
Slice thick ridge of the spines off.
Pack and roll

Cover bottom of slow cooker with diced tomatoes
Fill with cabbage rolls
Pour in 1 cup V8 juice

Cook on high 5 hours or till cabbage is tender. Good with salsa.




Cheap Suppers  Recipes to Print  Eating Beans  My Road to 10in10

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